Author: Khondkarian Raffi

Ex-envoy says he’s been financing Armenian PM’s newspaper for years as he was blackmailed

Khondkarian Raffi
News.am, Armenia
Ex-envoy says he’s been financing Armenian PM’s newspaper for years as he was blackmailed Ex-envoy says he’s been financing Armenian PM’s newspaper for years as he was blackmailed

00:48, 21.06.2020
                  

Old Armenian Town project could be finished by early 2021

Khondkarian Raffi
KMPH – Fox 26 News, Fresno

by Rich Rodriguez

Thursday, June 11th 2020

Old Armenian Town in downtown Fresno is ready to be renovated. 

An arson fire changed the plans but now there’s room to move William Saroyan’s childhood home to the site.

Old Armenian Town has been a vision for years but nothing ever changed.

An arson fire last week eliminated two homes from the project but the developer is still moving forward with the renovation.

The three buildings now boarded up will each get a facelift. 

Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias says the cement foundation will be cleared off for another historic gem. “Also looking at this empty area to relocate another historic Armenian home onto this pad so we complete the Armenian Town and maintain that history.”

That home is less than a mile away.

It was the childhood home of acclaimed novelist, playwright, and short-story writer William Saroyan.

This was the childhood home of acclaimed novelist, playwright, and short-story writer William Saroyan. (Photo: FOX26)

The Penstar Group has big plans to change the look of the area but the project at M street and Santa Clara takes priority. “The master plan calls for the preservation of Armenian Town to be complete and fully renovated and then build some high rises next to the State Court building to complete the full development of the area in Fresno,” said Arias.

The boarded-up buildings will eventually become commercial properties to be leased.

Arias would like to move the city parks department into the building on a temporary basis.

He says restoration in Fresno is his passion. “It’s been my top goal to preserve as many historical buildings as possible.”

Arias says the restored buildings in Old Armenian Town could be finished in seven months.


Artsakh’s former parliament Speaker appointed advisor to Armenia’s parliament Speaker

Khondkarian Raffi

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 20:18,

YEREVAN, JUNE 11, ARMENPRESS. Former Speaker of the National Assembly of Artsakh Ashot Ghulyan has assumed the position of advisor to the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, ARMENPRESS reports Vahan Kostanyan, assistant of Ararat Mirzoyan, wrote on his Facebook page.

‘’Ashot Ghulyan has assumed a position at the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly and will continue contributing to the process of forming a joint agenda of the legislative bodies of the two Armenian states in the position of advisor to the parliament Speaker’’.

COVID-19 updates: Russia’s confirmed cases surpass 485,000

Khondkarian Raffi

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 16:55, 9 June, 2020

YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) around the world has surpassed 7 million 226 thousand, according to the data released by coronavirus research centers.

The death toll is over 409,000.

More than 3 million 559 thousand patients have recovered.

US is leading in the world in terms of the largest number of infected people (2 million 026 thousand 951 confirmed cases). 113,106 deaths were reported.

Brazil overtook Russia and is now the 2nd with a total of 710,887 confirmed cases and 37,312 deaths.

The next is Russia. The total number of cases in Russia has reached 485,253. 6,142 patients have died so far.

Spain has 288,797 confirmed cases. Death toll is 27,136.

UK overtook Italy, confirming 287,399 cases. The death toll has reached 40,597. UK has reported most death cases in Europe, and 2nd in the world after the USA.

Then comes India with a total of 267,652 confirmed cases and 7,481 deaths.

Italy reported 235,278 cases and 33,964 deaths so far.

The next is Peru with 199,696 confirmed cases and 5,571 deaths.

Germany has confirmed 186,240 cases and 8,801 deaths.

Then comes Iran – 175,927 confirmed cases and 8,425 deaths.

Turkey has recorded 171,121 cases. The deaths comprise 4,711.

China, where the COVID-19 outbreak started, is now the 18th with a total of 83,043 cases, out of which 78,351 have already recovered. The death toll here is 4,634.

Georgia confirmed 818 cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.

Among the Arab states Saudi Arabia is leading with the most confirmed cases – 105,283.

Qatar overtook the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the most confirmed cases – 71,879. The death toll has reached 62 in Qatar.

The number of infected people in the UAE is 39,904. 283 death cases have been registered here.

Egypt reported 35,444 confirmed cases and 1,271 deaths.

In Kuwait the number of confirmed cases is 33,140, that of the deaths is 273.

Iraq confirmed 14,268 cases and 392 deaths.

1,368 cases have been reported in Lebanon, the deaths comprise 30.

Syria’s confirmed cases reached 144. 6 death cases have been registered.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global pandemic and named the virus COVID-19. 

According to the data of the World Health Organization, coronavirus cases have been confirmed in more than 212 countries and territories.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Police should act tough against those failing to comply with their legitimate demands – PM’s spokesperson

Khondkarian Raffi
Panorama, Armenia
June 5 2020

The spokesperson of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Mane Gevorgyan has commented on the social media footage which shows police officers using force against a man for not wearing a face mask.

In a post on Facebook, Gevorgyan said the pace of coronavirus growth in Armenia remains concerning, and the Police should be consistent in enforcing the safety rules.

“Those citizens, who fail to follow the safety rules, endanger not only their but also others’ life and health. In these cases, the Police is obliged to urge them to comply with the safety rules and use proportionate force in case of explicit neglect. The PM has already asked the Police to act tough against those who openly ignore the law enforcement demands,” Gevorgyan wrote.

The Spokesperson also asked the public to follow the prescribed safety rules and the police demands to prevent negative scenarios. 

Asbarez: Yerevan Says Safarov Ruling Shines Light on Baku’s Anti-Armenian Policies

Khondkarian Raffi

A protester holds a banner demanding justice for Gurgen Markaryan

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which faulted Azerbaijan for glorifying and endorsing Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani soldier who murdered Armenian soldier Gurgen Markaryan with an axe during a 2004 military retreat in Budapest, Hungary.

In its statement, the foreign ministry said that ECHR ruling was a rebuke of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian and Armenophobia policies, and should serve as an impetus to condemn and prevent hate crimes.

Below is the text of the foreign ministry announcement released by its press service.

On May 26, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of “Makuchyan and Minasyan vs Azerbaijan and Hungary,” which is related to the release and glorification by Azerbaijan of Ramil Safarov, who brutally killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan.

In 2004, in Budapest the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who was participating in a training course within the framework “Partnership for Peace” programme, murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan while he was asleep by axing him to death and attacked another Armenian officer Hayk Makuchyan. Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hungarian court, was transferred to Azerbaijan, where enforcement of the sentence should have been continued. However, immediately after the transfer Ramil Safarov was pardoned and glorified. In this regard the ruling stated: “The court is particularly struck by the fact that, in addition to immediate release, upon his return to Azerbaijan R.S. was granted a number of other benefits, such as salary arrears for the period spent in prison, a flat in Baku and a promotion in military rank awarded at a public ceremony.

The court has found violations of the 2nd (right to life) and 14th (non- discrimination) articles of the European Convention on Human rights by Azerbaijan.
It’s noteworthy that the ruling determined that the violation of those articles was interrelated, thus establishing that the impunity and glorification granted by the  highest leadership of Azerbaijan to Ramil Safarov, who was convicted in the brutal murder on the grounds of hatred, had a causing link to the ethnicity of the victims.

This ECHR decision is a ruling against Azerbaijan’s policy of Armenophobia. It not only recognizes, but also adjudicates on the inadmissibility of the promotion on the state level of hate crimes committed against the Armenians by Azerbaijan.

The ruling imposes a legal obligation to Azerbaijan to undertake such actions which will put an end to those violations of the European Convention of Human Rights and redress the effects.
The Republic of Armenia views this ruling of the ECHR as a demand addressed to the authorities of Azerbaijan to restore justice in the dreadful murder of Gurgen Margaryan and end its racist policy toward Armenians. To this end, the Republic of Armenia will make consistent efforts in the relevant international bodies.

The release of convicted murderer Ramil Safarov by the decree of the President of Azerbaijan and his glorification is a disrespect and affront to the standard of civilization and human dignity. Today, when those actions received their legal assessment, we more than ever are determined to prevent hate crimes and protect the security of the Armenian people in the region.

We will continue to work relentlessly to achieve a peaceful and secure region free of hatred.

Chess: The Armenian Chess Miracle

Khondkarian Raffi
Chess 24
 
 
The Armenian Chess Miracle
 
Levon Aronian is the undisputed leader of Armenian chess, but he emerged in a nation that was already chess crazy, at least since Tigran Petrosian became the 9th World Chess Champion in 1963. FM Andrey Terekhov looks at how a country of just 3 million people could do what Russia have failed to do since 2002 – win the World Chess Olympiad – not only once, but an incredible three times. This is the third installment of the #HeritageChess campaign, supported by the Lindores Abbey Heritage Society.
 

Armenia is arguably the most chess-playing nation in the world. It might be the only country in the world which has introduced mandatory chess classes into the primary school curriculum, and it’s not just the quantity of players – Armenia is also #6 in the world by the average rating of its Top 10 players.
 
Landlocked Armenia, a country smaller than Belgium, became a giant of the chess world | image: Google
 
How did chess become so popular in a small country with a population of 3 million? What is the secret behind the Armenian chess miracle?
 
A nation with a long history
 
To answer this question, we will first step back in time, to the beginnings of the long and complicated history of the Armenians. The history of the country could be traced back to truly ancient times, which is not that surprising for a country that lies in the shadows of the Biblical mountain Ararat. The present capital of the country, Yerevan, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the planet, with a foundation date of 782 BC. A thousand years later, in 301 AD, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. A century later, in 405 AD, the Armenian alphabet was invented.
 
Armenia’s primary challenge has always been its precarious geographical position at the crossroads of civilizations, as it has been surrounded by larger and more powerful neighbors throughout its whole history. Romans, Parthians, Persians, Arabs and Byzantium took turns at fighting over the Armenian land. Surviving was not easy, and many Armenians sought refuge away from home. This was the beginning of the Armenian diaspora, and over the centuries it reached the furthest corners of the world. To my surprise, I’ve seen Armenian churches almost everywhere I’ve been – not only in Russia, or in Germany, but even as far away as Singapore and Australia!
 
The diaspora increased dramatically after the tragic events of 1915, when more than 1.5 million Armenians were murdered or expelled from the Ottoman Empire. Today, more than 7 million Armenians are scattered all over the world, compared to the 3 million that live in Armenia itself.
 
The founding father of Armenian chess
 
Let us return to chess. It is presumed that chess was brought to Armenia by Arabs, perhaps as early as the 9th century. By the 12th-13th centuries chess starts to appear in the Armenian manuscripts, which are carefully preserved in the Matenadaran, the Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan.
 
We will start tracing the development of Armenian chess from the beginning of the 20th century, shortly after Armenia became a part of the Soviet Union. The key driving force in those days was Genrikh Kasparyan (1910-1995), the founding father of Armenian chess.
 
Genrikh Kasparyan
 
Kasparyan still holds the record for the most victories in the Armenian Championship (10 titles, from 1934 to 1956). He also put Armenia on the Soviet chess map when he won the semi-final of the USSR Championship in 1931, finishing ahead of Botvinnik. Kasparyan would qualify for the USSR Championship on three more occasions (the last time in 1952), which was no small feat in Soviet times. Kasparyan was in the first batch of players awarded the International Master title, when it was introduced by FIDE in 1950.
 
However, Kasparyan’s achievements as a chess composer are even greater. He is the author of several hundred studies, primarily focused on the endgame. In 1972 he became the first person to be awarded with the title Grandmaster of Chess Composition.
 
He published several collections of chess studies, and those are probably among the most underrated chess books out there. Levon Aronian once included Kasparyan’s “The Secrets of the Chess Composer” on a list of his three favorite chess books!
 
Here is one of the most famous of Kasparyan’s studies:
 
Genrikh Kasparyan
Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1939, 1st prize
 
1.Bg5! b3 2.Rd2+ Ka1 3.f7
 
3.Be3? b2+ 4.Rxb2 Rxf6 5.Bd4 Rf1+ 6.Kc2 a3 7.Rb1+ Ka2 8.Rxf1 stalemate!
 
3…Rxg5!
 
3…a3 4.Rd1 Rd6 5.f8Q b2+ 6.Kc2+ Rxd1 7.Qxa3#
 
4.f8Q Rg1+ 5.Rd1 Rg2 6.Qa3+ Ra2 7.Rd2!! Rxa3
 
7…b2+ loses prosaically: 8.Qxb2+ Rxb2 9.Rxb2 a3 10.Rb1+! Ka2 11.Rb8 Ka1 12.Kc2 a2 13.Kb3 Kb1 14.Ka3+ Ka1 15.Rh8 Kb1 16.Rh1+
 
8.Rb2! Black has only one legal move, which leads to immediate mate: 8…Ra2 9.Rb1#
 
Tigran Petrosian
 
The next breakthrough in Armenian chess history was the emergence of Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984). Incidentally, like Kasparyan before him, the future 9th World Champion was not born in Armenia. Both Kasparyan and Petrosian grew up in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) and made their first steps in chess in Georgia.
 
The triumphant greeting of Tigran Petrosian at Yerevan airport
 
Petrosian showed great promise already as a teenager. In 1945 he won the Georgian Men’s Championship. In 1946 he moved to Yerevan, won the Armenian Championship, then won the USSR Junior Championship (with a phenomenal score, 14 out of 15!) and scored a master title by winning a match against Kasparyan (8:6) in what could be considered a symbolic passing of the torch for Armenian chess.
 
A few years later Petrosian moved to Moscow, where he quickly rose from a rank-and-file master to a grandmaster and a World Championship candidate. From 1953 to 1980 Petrosian would not miss a single World Championship cycle, always reaching at least the Candidates stage.
 
Petrosian managed to scale the highest peak of chess on the fourth attempt. In 1962 he won the Curaçao Candidates (no losses in 27 games!) and in 1963 he defeated Mikhail Botvinnik in a World Championship match (+5 -2 =15).
 
A little-known fact is that Petrosian also became the first World Champion in 30+ years to win a World Championship match after ascending to the throne. Indeed, from 1934’s Alekhine-Bogoljubow to 1966’s Petrosian-Spassky the best that the reigning World Champions could muster was drawing the match against the challenger!
 
Petrosian had an innate talent for defense and prophylactic thinking, which made him almost unbeatable. He played in 10 Chess Olympiads from 1958 to 1978, including four times on first board, but lost just one (!) game out of 129. This trait earned him the moniker “Iron Tigran”. Lev Polugaevsky once said:
 
In those years it was easier to win the USSR Championship than to win a single game against Petrosian.
 
The following position is the most famous of all Petrosian’s defensive concepts:
 
Reshevsky – Petrosian
Zürich 1953, Candidates Tournament
 
 
Here Petrosian played 25…Re6!!, a purely positional exchange sacrifice to stop the white pawns and secure the black knight an outpost on d5.
 
Tigran Petrosian died at an early age – he was only 55 years old when he died of stomach cancer – but left an incredible legacy and remains a national hero in Armenia to this day. The usage of the name Tigran, which was already popular, spiked after 1963, and the latest FIDE rating list has about a dozen players with the name Tigran Petrosian, including 1 GM and 2 IMs!
 
In 2018 Armenia issued a banknote of 2,000 Dram with Petrosian’s portrait on it. There is only one other chess player who has previously been honored in a similar way – Paul Keres appeared on Estonia’s 5 kroon bill (unfortunately those are no longer in circulation as Estonia has since joined the Eurozone.)
 
The last Soviet generation
 
Rafael Vaganian
 
Petrosian’s victory in the World Championship match led to a chess boom in Armenia. The numbers enrolling in chess clubs doubled, and eventually other Armenian players became grandmasters, including Rafael Vaganian, Smbat Lputian and Arshak Petrosian.
 
Of this generation, Rafael Vaganian was the most successful. He became a grandmaster at 19 years old by winning a strong tournament in Vrnjačka Banja (Yugoslavia), ahead of Leonid Stein and Ljubomir Ljubojević. It was an impressive achievement, since Vaganian was not even an International Master at the time!
 
Vaganian played in many USSR Championships and finally won the title in 1989. He also reached the Candidates Matches twice (1986 and 1988). Apart from this, Vaganian won dozens of tournaments over his long career, including a Senior World Championship title as recently as 2019.
 
Coincidentally, the last person to win the USSR Chess Championship was another Armenian, Artashes Minasian, who won the final edition of the tournament in 1991.
 
Chess in independent Armenia
 
In December 1991 Armenia officially attained independence, but its starting conditions were tough. Armenia is not rich in natural resources, and being a landlocked country made it vulnerable to an economic blockade by its neighbors (Azerbaijan and Turkey), which has not been lifted to this day. Armenia experienced a sharp downturn in its economy and electricity blackouts became a regular occurrence.
 
Chess was one of the few respites. In 1992 Armenia surprised the world by winning a bronze medal at its first Chess Olympiad, fielding a team that was made up mostly of the players who cut their teeth in the Soviet competitions – Rafael Vaganian, Vladimir Akopian, Smbat Lputian, Artashes Minasian, Arshak Petrosian and Ashot Anastasian.
 
Vladimir Akopian
 
The youngest member of this team was the 1991 World Junior Champion, Vladimir Akopian, who would become a key member of the Armenian team, linking the Soviet generation with the one that emerged after independence. Akopian has some links to Kasparov – he was also born in Baku (Azerbaijan) and studied in the famous Botvinnik/Kasparov school. In 1999 Akopian came tantalizingly close to winning the FIDE Knockout World Championship, losing the final match to Alexander Khalifman.
 
Akopian was the first Armenian player to cross the 2700 rating barrier (in 2003) and he would represent the country in the next 12 Olympiads, including playing three times on first board. Vladimir Akopian led the team to three bronze medals (in 1992, 2002 and 2004), but in 2006 he passed the baton to Levon Aronian, as by that time Aronian was already a Top 10 player.
 
This ushered in an incredible streak of victories for the Armenian team, as it won the Chess Olympiads in 2006, 2008 and then again in 2012. This success simply defies explanation. Of course, Armenia had a strong line-up but the same could be said about many other countries. And yet when it came to Chess Olympiads, there was a certain magic, the proverbial team spirit that helped Armenia to get over the line.
 
The team that won the first-ever gold for Armenia featured a player who would die tragically young. Karen Asrian was in the world top 100 for many years and played on the third board at the 2006 Olympiad. In June 2008 he died from a sudden heart attack whilst driving to a tournament in Yerevan. He was only 28 years old. The tournament that was about to start was postponed and later renamed the Karen Asrian Memorial.
 
Despite this terrible blow, Armenia won the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, and then another one in 2012. In the last edition they were strengthened by Sergei Movsesian, an Armenian who lived in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for many years but returned to Armenia to represent his home country.
 
An Armenian postage stamp depicting the national team that won the 2008 Chess Olympiad
 
Movsesian is but one of many examples of great chess players in the Armenian diaspora. For example, in the United States there are Samuel Sevian, Varuzhan Akobian and Tatev Abrahamyan; Brazil has Krikor Mekhitarian; in Russia there are Yuri Dokhoyan and David Paravyan; and of course, many Armenians would not hesitate to count Kasparov too!
 
Armenian chess has come a long way from its humble beginnings a century earlier. In 2011 Armenian chess received a further boost when it was made a mandatory subject in primary schools, along with the more established subjects such as math or sport. Who knows, maybe the next Petrosian or the next Aronian is currently discovering chess in the second grade of a school somewhere in Armenia…
 
About the author
 
FM Andrey Terekhov
 
Andrey Terekhov (@ddtru) grew up in Russia, lived in many countries and currently resides in Singapore. His best results at the board are victories at the Munich Open (2008), Nabokov Memorial in Kiev (2012) and shared 2nd place at the Washington Open (2018). He is the author of the Two Knights Defense course on Chessable. For the past few years Andrey has been writing a book about Vasily Smyslov, with publication planned for late 2020.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ARF student union: We condemn Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute director’s activities

Khondkarian Raffi
News.am, Armenia

17:13, 17.05.2020
                  

Pashinyan keeps money from sale of his car in bank in drams as a deposit

Khondkarian Raffi

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 13:30,

YEREVAN, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan keeps the money from the sale of his car in bank in drams as a deposit, the PM said at a press conference today.

“In the past two years a decline in dollarization level is noticed in the banking system. The dollarization level of loans provided by commercial banks in 2019 comprised 53% compared to the 59.5% of 2018. The dollarization level of deposits in 2019 comprised 59.3% compared to the 60% of the previous year. This means that our compatriots more and more trust the dram and prefer to keep their deposits in drams, and also take loans in drams. I also do the same. For instance, I recently sold my Hyundai and keep the money from it in the bank in drams as a deposit”, Pashinyan said.

He added that the share of overdue loans in the loans provided by Armenia’s commercial banks in 2019 declined and comprised a record low level in December – 0,85%. In 2018 this figure was 1%. In March 2020, the loans provided to the legal persons and individuals increased by 20.3% compared to the same period of 2019. “This figure shows that the Armenian citizens more than ever before not only take loans, but also are capable of serving these loans properly, which means that they had proper incomes”, Pashinyan said.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Coronavirus politics: why has Armenia become the regional leader in coronavirus deaths?

Khondkarian Raffi
JAM News
 
 
 
14.05.2020
Arthur Khachatryan, Yerevan
 
Armenia is lifting the quarantine in the midst of a rise in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases. The total number of cases is rapidly approaching 4,000. And this means that the healthcare system may soon be unable to hospitalize new coronavirus patients: only those who experience complications will be admitted to the hospital.
 
Why did Armenia, a country with a relatively small population which closed its borders, end up becoming the regional leader in coronavirus cases?
 
Who is to blame?
 
The first coronavirus case in Armenia was reported on March 1. By mid-May, the country already has 3,500 patients. Around 30% of them have recovered, and 47 have died.
 
This is the largest figure among the three countries in the region. For comparison, the number of COVID-19 cases in Georgia is around six times lower than in Armenia. Azerbaijan also has fewer infections – around 1,000 less.
 
Armenia declared a state of emergency at the beginning of March. Cafes and restaurants were closed, as well as practically all businesses, hair salons, and stores, with the exception of grocery stores. People were not allowed to go outside unless absolutely necessary, and even then had to fill out a special form indicating their expected return.
 
The country closed its border with Iran and Georgia. Some experts believe that this decision was made in a timely manner, others think it was too late, and furthermore, at the onset of the epidemic, the country’s leadership did not have the proper attitude towards the situation. This is also evidenced by the Bright Armenia opposition faction MP Gevorg Gorgisyan.
 
“In the beginning, the authorities didn’t treat the virus threat seriously. While the opposition talked about the need to close the border with Iran, shut down air travel between countries, and quarantine all those coming into the country, the authorities conducted a campaign and made frivolous statements about the virus. Today, the result of these actions is plain to see.”
 
Coronavirus hit the Armenian political establishment during an active campaign for constitutional changes. Mass gatherings were held in many cities with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in attendance, who, as a result, had to take the coronavirus test two times. At that time, the head of the cabinet stated that they had managed to cope with the epidemic quickly, and Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan announced that COVID-19 was not a serious disease.
 
Ruling My Step Alliance MP Eriknaz Tigranyan said that the state of emergency and steps taken by the commandant’s office were timely, and that the large number of infected people was not due to mistakes on the part of the authorities.
 
“Our first case was reported on March 1. We then followed the steps decided upon by the government. On March 16, we declared a state of emergency. At the initial stage, not much was known about the virus. And even the World Health Organization did not have a single unified point of view on some issues. However, the commandant’s office took all the necessary steps.”
 
The MP believes that the statistics in other countries do not reflect the real situation, since neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan are testing as much as Armenia.
 
“In Georgia, there have this category of people who are ‘under surveillance.’ And it is still not clear what exactly this means. And we test everyone who is suspected of having the virus. Many countries are not doing what we are doing, and only treat those who have complications.”
 
At the same time, the commandant’s office and the Armenian Ministry of Health have repeatedly stated that if not for the measures they introduced, hundreds of thousands of people could become infected with the coronavirus. These restrictions made it possible to control the spread of the virus in the country. However, not all residents complied with quarantine.
 
Why didn’t the quarantine work?
 
Everyone acknowledges that far from everyone adhered to the quarantine restrictions. This is most likely the main reason for the rapid spread of the disease.
 
Opposition MP Gevorg Gorgisyan believes that a more effective control system has been introduced in European countries. In Armenia, the special travel forms citizens needed to fill out were more formal.
 
“Our citizens could write anything on a piece of paper and leave the house. People did not take this step seriously. The decisions made by the commandant’s office were not substantiated and logical enough to ensure that they were well implemented.”
 
Politicians note that even large fines did nothing to remedy the situation, since many were certain that the authorities would later waive them.
 
Some citizens really did not take the situation seriously, notes ruling My Alliance Faction MP Narek Zeynalyan, however, the commandant is not to blame for this:
 
“There were a lot of factors in play here. For example, national characteristics, the habit of visiting one another. And this has become one of the reasons for the spread of the disease. The commandant’s office took the same steps that were taken around the world.”
 
Opposition MP Gevorg Gorgisyan insists that these necessary measures were taken too late:
 
“In those countries where they started to impose these restrictions earlier, for instance, New Zealand and Georgia, the situation is much better than in Armenia.”
 
Will the numbers continue to grow?
 
In Armenia, more than a hundred new cases are reported daily, and the growth rate has not decreased over the past 10 days. The commandant’s office admits that it is no longer in control of all of the epicenters of infection, which continue to pop up spontaneously around the country.
 
Oppositionist Gevorg Gorgisyan is certain that we should not expect to see a slowdown in rate of infection in the near future, even despite the improved weather conditions:
 
“The virus is spreading all over the world. And even the prime minister said that in the fall, perhaps, there will be a second wave. Some forecasts predict that this situation may last a year.”
 
There is no question that borders will be opening in the near future, says Eriknaz Tigranyan. But all states are being forced to lift restrictions, as the economy needs to be revitalized. Hundreds of enterprises have already returned to normal operations. There is no other way, the ruling party MP is sure, and people should get used to living and working in new conditions.
 
Ruling party MP Narek Zeynalyan also talks about the citizens’ need to observe the precautionary measures and about everyone’s personal responsibility:
 
“The restrictions have been lifted, but this does not mean that you do not need to use masks, gloves, and antibacterials.”